VIVID is the first housing association to launch a customer-skills credential for all its staff certificated under City & Guilds Assured.
The programme highlights the role every team plays in shaping the customer experience. It brings staff together around a shared approach, helping everyone make confident, consistent decisions that contribute to customers feeling they have a good place to live.
The Customer Advocate credential has been designed to build on staff’s existing knowledge and experience. Its flexible content means they only complete the learning that’s relevant to them, using real examples from their day-to-day work to strengthen their understanding of what great customer skills look like.
At the end of the programme, staff undertake an assessment that further confirms they have demonstrated the skills, knowledge and behaviours that VIVID champions.
After a successful assessment, staff will earn a City & Guilds Assured digital badge and certificate, proving they’ve undertaken training that meets the Assured Benchmark, City & Guilds’ global quality standard for internally developed training. With almost 150 years’ experience in workforce skills development, City & Guilds is recognised both nationwide and beyond.
All VIVID’s staff will complete the credential over the next two years, with new starters required to complete it within their first 6 months.
This initiative forms part of VIVID’s customer experience strategy, ensuring every team member has the skills, behaviours and knowledge needed to deliver on its Customer Promises.
Susan Noone, Director of People at VIVID, said:
“We’ve always made sure our teams have the technical skills they need to do their jobs well, and they already bring a huge amount of experience and dedication to supporting our customers. What we haven’t had until now is a company-wide customer-focused learning programme that brings all our expectations and promises together. The Customer Advocate credential does exactly that. It develops our teams and gives staff the chance to earn something with real value – both here at VIVID and throughout their careers. Just as importantly, it reinforces that customer skills are every bit as essential to our success as technical expertise.”
Alex Nagle, Customer Service Director at VIVID, added:
“Great customer experience is something we create together. It isn’t just shaped by our customer facing staff – it’s influenced by how we work with each other. That’s why everyone’s getting involved in the Customer Advocate credential. It brings our Customer Promises to life by giving all our teams a shared understanding of what good looks like. It celebrates the strong customer skills we already have and helps us build on them, so we can keep improving the experience we deliver every day.”
Mandy Smith, Executive Director, Awarding & Assessment Customer Solutions, City & Guilds, said:
“Building the City & Guilds Customer Advocate credential into its customer-focused training programme is an excellent way for VIVID to focus on how best to meet the needs of its customers both in their home and neighbourhood, and to tailor its services to support this aim.”
